Penalty for late filing of income tax return, ITR Filing 2024: The Income Tax Department has started sending reminders to taxpayers through emails and SMSes to ensure they do not miss the ITR filing deadline and end up paying a penalty. Every year in July, the tax department keeps reminding taxpayers about the ITR due date until the deadline ends.

What is ITR filing due date for AY 2024-25?

Taxpayers, whose accounts are not liable to tax audit, are allowed to file their income tax return for the previous financial year (AY 2024-25) until July 31. As of now, the Income Tax Department has not made any comments on the possibility of deadline extension for ITR filing this year.

Taxpayers covered under the tax audit can file their income tax return until October 31, 2024. The due date for filing revised return and belated return for AY 2024-25 is December 31, 2024.  Also Read

The I-T department makes available for taxpayers various ITR forms and Excel utilities online at the very beginning of a new financial year to facilitate early tax filing by taxpayers. However, most salaried individuals file their income tax returns only after they receive their  Form 16 from their employers. Most companies give Form 16 to their staff towards the end-June or early July.

With July 31 being the deadline for ITR filing, taxpayers get a four-month window (April 1 to July 31) every year to consolidate all their income and investment details for the previous fiscal year before they file tax returns.

Penalty for late filing of ITR 2024

For those with a net taxable income up to Rs 5 lakh, the maximum penalty amount for filing a belated tax return is Rs 1,000. For taxpayers with a net taxable income of more than Rs 5 lakh, the penalty amount is fixed at Rs 5,000. In case, the taxpayer’s total income is below the basic exemption limit, there is no penalty as per the Income Tax Act.

What are basic exemption limits under new and old tax regimes?

Under the new tax regime, the current basic tax exemption limit is Rs 3 lakh, hiked from Rs 2.5 lakh in 2023. Under the old tax regime, up to Rs 2.5 lakh annual income is exempt from tax liability.

Now in this upcoming budget, it is widely expected that the Modi government will give some relief to middle-class taxpayers, who want to see FM Sitharaman raising the basic tax exemption limit under the new tax regime to Rs 5 lakh from the existing Rs 3 lakh. Among other expectations are a hike in Standard Deduction and introduction of 80C benefits under the new tax regime.